


this is what a love song sounds like

by selahinthesky



Category: APB (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, One Shot Collection, gideon/murphy is v v background, i'll add more tags once i figure out what the fuck im doing, murphy and ada are best friends and you can't tell me otherwise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-10-27 14:38:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10811031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selahinthesky/pseuds/selahinthesky
Summary: a collection of short ada/brandt one shots because i love them.(the lack of capitalization is intentional)





	1. all the pretty girls

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i have no idea what i'm doing  
> also, i do not own any of the characters in this fic unless otherwise specified, and i don't own the show APB. that privilege goes to Fox  
> if you have a prompt you'd like me to write, tell me in the comments! check out my tumblr: welcome-to-the-13th

to say that nick brandt hates working the night shift, despises it even, would be awfully dramatic, and nicholas brandt is not dramatic. 

did he dislike having to stay at the precinct into the early morning hours? yes.  
did he find it unfair how his partner always seemed to wrangle the schedule so she never had to work the graveyard shift? hell yes.  
would he gladly kill, maim, bribe, and/or threaten in order to get home before the cubs game started this week? absolutely. but does that make him dramatic? well, he’ll leave that up to whatever poor rookie he can finagle into running his errands and writing his reports. 

but this night shift was different. for some reason, the usually dead precinct felt lighter, happier even, than any other night. brandt wondered if that had anything to do with a certain techie still in the office. 

 

nick would be lying to himself if he said he'd never noticed how beautiful ada was. the very first day she and gideon had upended the 13th, brandt had felt drawn to her. she had this easygoing spirit that made you want to sit in a field with her and make flower crowns or some shit. when she laughed, her eyes closed and her nose scrunched up and you wondered how such a big and wonderful sound had come out of something so small. ada took no prisoners when she tore through her work, refusing to take no for an answer. 

plus, all of nick’s friends liked her, so that was an added bonus. 

but still, ada was at least five years younger than nick, at least three times as smart, and way out of his league. he had made his peace with nursing his bleeding heart behind witty one liners and snarky nicknames. if he happened to be more likely to come ask ada a question he could've asked murphy or the captain or literally anybody else, nobody pointed it out. 

 

so, when brandt realized that ada was in fact staying at the precinct tonight, he had to chide himself when his heart fluttered at the thought of spending more time with her. his heart did not flutter, like a hopeless schoolgirl with a crush. he would handle this. all he had to do was show himself he wasn't interested anymore by walking up to her and starting a conversation. right?

nick was halfway across the bullpen when he began to see the flaws in his logic. alas, enough people had already seen him walking towards ada for it to be weird if he randomly turned about face and beelined it back to his desk. _idiot,_ he scolded. _you DID NOT think this through. what are you even gonna talk about? better think of something fast, cause here's her desk._

 

‘hey hot stuff!’ brandt said, hopping up on her desk and wincing when he sounded a little too eager. 

thank the lord above ada didn't notice his weird tone. ‘hey,’ she responded with a smile. ‘what's up?’

‘oh, you know. trying to write reports but i'm not getting much done. i didn't know you pulled graveyard shifts like the rest of us beat cops.’ it was a statement, but there was a clear question in nick’s voice. _are you here a lot of nights?_

‘this is my first one, but i'm sure i'll do more. gideon’s usually here late most days just incase something happens, or if he gets really glued to a project, but tonight he's off on some ‘super secret liaison’. his words, not mine.’ 

brandt snorted and stole a sip of water from the bottle on ada’s desk; that sounded just like something gideon would say. 

‘he's probably off somewhere with murphy, seeing as they're totally sleeping together.’

now that took nick completely by surprise. he choked on his water. ‘ _excuse_ me?’

ada looked absolutely delighted that she knew something he didn't. she watched him from underneath her growing bangs with a devilish grin, almost daring him to ask how she knew this information.

‘how do you even know that?’

‘i’ll spare you the details, but a couple of weeks ago i went to drop some paperwork off at gideon’s. when i knocked, murphy answered. she thought i was the pizza guy.’

nick frowned. ‘just because she was at his house doesn’t mean they’re sleeping together.’

‘it does if she answers the door naked, don’t you think?’

he choked again. ‘oh my god, ada!’

‘i said i would spare you the details!’ 

ada watched him react to her story with her head resting on her hand and a wide smile on her face, the light from her computer backlighting her in a way that made her look ethereal. he wished he could take a picture of her and- brandt suddenly realized he hadn’t said anything in a long time and that he was staring.

‘well, at least you didn’t see gideon naked too.’

ada shrieked and let her head fall onto her desk, saying something about nightmares and therapy. brandt laughed loudly, garnering a few stares from the other officers who were beginning to file in for their morning shifts. eventually, they both stopped laughing and just watched each other, content to sit in silence. ada opened her mouth to say something when her phone started ringing. she glanced at it quickly then looked at nick apologetically. 

‘hey genius,’ ada said to the person on the other end. brandt could only assume it was gideon. their conversation was short. ada looked at brandt mischeviously, which made him a little nervous and a little excited. with that look usually came great gossip.

‘gideon’s not coming in today.’

it dawned on nick, like somebody had flipped a light switch.

‘isn’t today murphy’s day off?’

they stared at each other for a long moment. ada cracked first and started laughing, causing brandt to laugh as well, then ada snorted just a little bit which caused brandt to laugh harder, until their stomachs were both a little sore and their cheeks hurt from smiling.

‘i honestly can’t believe she’s sleeping with him,’ brandt said, wiping his eyes. he paused. ‘how are you going to get home? doesn’t gideon usually drive you here and back?’

ada shrugged. ‘i told him i’d walk.’

‘ _walk?_ ’ brandt said incredulously. ‘where do you even live?

‘just in grand boulevard. i’ll be fine.’

‘grand boulevard? ada, that’s like, ten miles away! i’ll drive you.’

‘brandt, no, i’m not going to ask you to do that. i actually walk here a lot, and you’d probably be going way out of your way, so it’s fine-‘

‘ada,’ he cut her off. ‘i live in washington park. i wouldn’t be going out of my way to take you, and i’m not going to let you walk ten miles when i live over there too. end of discussion.’

ada looked at him, a little surprise clear on her face. she seemed to be thinking over what she was going to say until she finally said, ‘oh, alright. thank you, really.’

‘of course, hot stuff. now c’mon, i’ve got three episodes of dvr’ed ‘keeping up with the kardashians’ that are calling my name.’


	2. take it or leave it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> murphy helps ada realize some things, and ada tells brandt what's good.

ada hamilton knew she was smart. 

 

she'd grown up on her own, taught herself almost everything she knew about computers, and had earned every scholarship in the book. maybe she wasn't a certified genius like gideon, but she was pretty damn smart and had no qualms about admitting it. so how had she not seen this coming?

 

was it because it was so unexpected? no, she had noticed him that very first day gideon had dragged her to the precinct to help tear up the place. noticed how muscular he was, noticed the slight but confident smirk, noticed how he had noticed _her_ , and how he'd immediately stopped talking to goss and had raked his eyes over her body in a way that made her have to leave the room and catch her breath. so no, not totally unexpected. and it wasn't like ada didn't know that he liked her. she was attractive enough, all legs but not half as curvy as she'd like, and she'd caught him staring at her enough times to know what was going on. when ada started catching rides with brandt, she told herself that it was wrong to lead him on, but it just seemed so natural to laugh a little louder, smile a little wider, or lean into the hand he put on the small of her back as he walked her to her apartment door. 

 

so how did ada not realize she was in love with nicholas brandt sooner?

 

murphy had figured out what ada felt long before ada knew she even felt anything. she and ada had been having weekly girl's nights ever since murphy and gideon had gotten together. they usually went to some bar, had drinks, bonded over the fact that they both had to deal with gideon's shenanigans, and (to ada's demise), discussed precinct gossip. one night, murphy was saying how the rookie beat cops had been practically falling over themselves to get nick to notice them. ada felt her eyebrows draw together as she fell quiet and sipped her beer. 

'what?' murphy asked. 'no sarcastic comment?'

'they'd have a better chance of getting some with reyes, but he wouldn't know what to do with them,' ada answered half-heartedly, secretly wondering why the idea of brandt sleeping with someone else bothered her. murphy just watched her and sipped her beer. 

'that bothers you, doesn't it?' murphy smiled conspiratorially and leaned in over the bar towards ada. 

'no, i just...i mean, yes, it does, but brandt is a consenting adult and he can do whatever he wants, so it shouldn't but it does and i don't know why.' ada sighed and put her head in her hands. murphy looked like she was trying not to laugh. 'what!?' ada demanded. 

'it shouldn't but it does, and you don't know why,' murphy huffed out something that was like a combination of a laugh and a sigh. 'you sound just like me when lauren started showing up at the precinct.'

ada started, finally catching on to what her friend was saying. 'no! murph, i do not like nick brandt. nope. that is a definite no.'

'mmhmmmm,' murphy raised her eyebrows and sipped her drink. 'i think you do, and you just won't admit it to yourself. i mean, it's super obvious to me, even gideon's said something about you two. and you know how dense that boy can be.'

ada glanced miserably at her empty bottle and flagged down the bartender for another. why did murphy have to be so observant? why did she always have to be right? more importantly, did ada really have feelings for nick?

 _duh,_ her heart said. _i've been trying to tell you for months._

 _oh,_ her brain replied. 

'i think,' ada said finally. 'that i need to talk to nicholas brandt.'

 

and that is how ada found herself making two coffees with a little more care than usual way too early in the morning that next monday. she looked across the breakfast bar and into her living room where a certain cop was sitting on her couch, blearily watching the morning news. it had become a routine among the two of them: she answered the door for him and made coffee as he slowly woke up. then, they set off for the precinct, usually discussing whatever that week's big case was or whatever crazy gadget gideon was working on. ada felt how domestic this was, how right it felt, and couldn't help but smile. 

'nick,' she said quietly, not wanting to startle him. 'nick, baby.'

this got his attention 'huh?' 

'do you want milk or sugar?'

'sugar, please. thanks hot stuff.' he sat up and accepted the coffee when she brought it to him, staying quiet when he felt she had something to say. 

ada perched on the arm rest of the la-z-boy as opposed to taking a seat next to brandt on the couch, and put down her cup down on the table in front of her. 'so i'm pretty sure i'm a little bit in love with you.' 

nick's eyes were wide, the coffee in his hands all but forgotten. for once, he was at a loss for words. 

'i...am not so good with figuring out feelings. it took another person telling me how i feel to realize what i'm pretty sure i already knew. and i don't want this to make things weird for us, so if you want you can just forget it.'

nick just stared at ada, shifted his eyes to the floor, then placed his mug on the coffee table. she sighed but nodded, and stood up. 

'okay. good talk.'

ada started to walk back towards the kitchen when brandt grabbed her hand. her head snapped around to look at her small hand in his rough hand, not even looking away when he stood up, or when he intertwined their fingers, or when he said her name softly. eventually, nick gently put a hand on ada's face and turned it so she was staring into his eyes. they were close enough for ada to feel the heat radiating off of him and _why weren't they kissing_ and his hand made her's feel all tingly and they _still weren't kissing_ , so ada tilted her head and raised up on her toes until their mouths were pressed together. brandt let go of her hand only to pull her closer and ada's hands tangled in his hair and when they finally broke apart to catch their breath, ada laughed because nick had her lipstick all over his mouth. he let out a small laugh and let his forehead fall forward with his eyes still closed. ada relished in having nick so close to her. he was the first to say something

'i don't want to forget it. i never want to forget a single thing about you. i'm a little bit in love with you too, ada hamilton.'

the two of them never finished their coffees that morning, and when they were definitely kind of late to work, murphy just high fived ada. 


End file.
